Left out of the Premier League squad by Scott Parker, Jean-Michaël Seri hasn’t had a lot to do during the first half of the season at Fulham.
The Ivory Coast international has only made two appearances this season, both in the EFL Cup, and with a career to salvage, it wasn’t surprising to see him linked with an exit, even less so when it was reported that Galatasaray, where he spent last season on loan, were the interested party.
However, it appears there will be one sacrifice to ensure Seri has a space at the Turkish side, and that’s Stoke City’s Oghenekaro Etebo.
The 25-year-old arrived on loan back in September with an option to buy at around €7.5m, but just 506 minutes of football spread over 11 appearances has seen him pushed to one side over at the Ali Sami Yen Spor Kompleksi Türk Telekom Stadyumu.
According to Sabah, Galatasaray are ‘preparing to terminate Etebo’s contract’ in order to make room for Seri as the negotiations for the Fulham player reach the final stages.
It’s explained the Cottagers want around €500k up front for the loan, while their Turkish counterparts would rather not have to pay anything at all.
Seri, ‘who wanted to work with Fatih Terim once again’, told Galatasaray that if they could convince Fulham to make the move happen, ‘he would not cause any problems with his pay’.
That might be the case, but he’d be causing Stoke City a headache they probably didn’t want, now seemingly needing to find Etebo a new landing spot in the coming weeks.
